Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) (Amendment) Regulations 2008

My Lords, I welcome the support of both noble Lords for this measure. I think we all recognise the importance of the equity in it. The noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, raised a number of points and I shall try to deal with each of them. He asked whether the regulations included references to statutory maternity pay; the answer is no. Only SSP is affected by the three-month exclusion. The agency workers who meet qualifying conditions are eligible to all statutory maternity pay on the same basis as anyone else. He asked why that was not corrected earlier. We have corrected it as quickly as possible following the court judgment. Until that court judgment, obviously, we had maintained that our interpretation was as we now have it.